If you are planning to come down to Auckland for the weekend, here is a sincere advice – stay at home.
That’s because it’s complete madness here in the biggest New Zealand town. Thousands of Indian fans have descended here for the inconsequential Group B match in the World Cup against Zimbabwe, but that’s not the only reason.
The city is also hosting the Volvo Ocean Race right now. Today, the In-Port Race are scheduled, while the fifth leg of the race commences tomorrow. Yachting is huge in New Zealand, and hence, several more thousands can be added to the cricket fans who are already here.
But that’s not all. On both days, the legendary rock band Eagles are in the city with the ‘History of the Eagles’ Tour and playing at Mt Smart Stadium. Both shows are on the verge of being sold out, and a total of 90,000 fans are expected to watch them perform live.
Thanks to three big events over Saturday and Sunday, almost every hotel in the city has been booked. If you search the popular hotel booking site Booking.com, there are only 17 hotels that have vacancy out of 286 listed properties. The per day rates are ridiculously high – in the range of USD350 to USD700.
Even the lodges and motels that are located more than 25kms away from the city, are charging similar rates.
An Auckland Tourism official admitted that such a busy weekend is almost unprecedented in the recent history of the city.
And talking of high hotel prices, Melbourne is becoming impossible as well during the World Cup final weekend. Almost every hotel in the CBD area is booked out. A journalist friend was trying to arrange something and getting nowhere, so I suggested him to try a hotel where I had stayed earlier for around AUD125 per night.
He gave them a call, and almost fell of his chair when the lady said they had one room available – for a staggering AUD545!
So, if you are becoming a ‘Desperado’ to come to Auckland or Melbourne, I’d say it would be better if you ‘Take it Easy’. You surely are not getting any Hotel California here for cheap!
